Published 6:25 am, Friday, October 25, 2013

But Anthony Johnson, the son of one of the original Temptations, couldn't resist stealing millions of dollars by crawling over sticky movie theater floors in Fairfield and Greenwich and taking credit cards from unsuspecting women's pocketbooks and maxing them out.

Prosecutors said the scheme netted Johnson about $7 million. On Thursday, U.S. District Judge Vanessa L. Bryant said the scheme netted Johnson 16 years in prison and a court order to repay $70,826.

Johnson, the son of original Temptation member Paul Williams, told Bryant the prison sentence was much too harsh.

"I'm 50 years old. The average lifespan for an African-American male is 65," he said. "I should not be getting a life sentence for what I did."

"It is not. I looked it up. The average lifespan is 78," countered Bryant, who is also black.

In nearly cutting in half the prosecution's request for a 30-year sentence for Johnson, Bryant told him, "I have been as lenient as I can be in good conscience."

Johnson, a career criminal whose record fills 14 pages, said he's still "got a lot of things on my agenda" to accomplish. Johnson also said he wants to help incarcerated young black men change their ways.

But Assistant U.S. Attorney Rahul Kale said there is another item on Johnson's agenda. He wants to learn how to use the Internet to hack into bank accounts, according to a fellow inmate.

"All convicted felons talk to each other," Johnson replied. "How am I going to hack? You need books and software. I'm 50 years old ... I don't have time to learn how to hack."

Kale argued that a long sentence would give Johnson time "to learn to be a productive member of society."

For nearly two years -- and just days after his release from prison -- Johnson began recruiting women such as Jamie Lynn McGowan and Lashirelle Bryant to accompany him on jaunts to Fairfield County theaters, where presumably wealthy women would be watching chick flicks such as "Eat, Pray, Love" and "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button."

The targeted theaters included the Fairfield Cinemas and Bow-Tie Cinemas in Greenwich. Prosecutors said Johnson also worked the scheme at Gallery Cinema in Colchester and many other movie houses in the Northeast.

While the female patrons were focused on the movie, Johnson "would slither like a snake" across the movie theater floors and steal driver's licenses, credit cards and debit cards from open purses, according to McGowan.

Back at his vehicle, Johnson had a computer with the templates of nearly all 50 states. He used the templates to make fake ID cards using the victim's name and the photograph of one of his accomplices.

The accomplices would then go on spending sprees, buying $1,000 gift cards, electronics, fancy clothes, designer sunglasses and jewelry. They also took out cash advances.

"A good weekend was $50,000 to $70,000," McGowan testified last year.

For Johnson, the racket landed him a Rolex watch, a Mercedes-Benz, property in Delaware, and trips to Hawaii and Las Vegas.

On Thursday, Johnson took offense to McGowan's testimony and the media portrayal of him as "the creepy crawler."

"They took away my dignity," he said.

In prison, Johnson claims people point to him and say, "This is the snake who slithers across movie theater floors."

"I'm not a snake," he told the judge. "I don't slither. I'm a human being with morals."

"I can't go to a movie theater anymore. I can't eat out or enter a business," Johnson argued, even though he has been detained without bond since his 2011 arrest.

Meanwhile, McGowan has problems of her own. After her release from prison on an 18-month sentence, she tested positive for drug use.

Bryant ordered McGowan placed in an in-patient drug treatment program run by the Salvation Army in Hartford. In September, McGowan walked away from the program and is now being sought as a fugitive.

Lashirelle Bryant, who also testified against Johnson, has yet to be sentenced.